Tom Rush to play benefit for Concord's Nature Connection

Wednesday

If folk music is about life experience, Tom Rush has a lot to say, with songs and reflections collected throughout his journey in music, which spans more than four decades.

If folk music is about life experience, Tom Rush has a lot to say, with songs and reflections collected throughout his journey in music, which spans more than four decades.

For all that, he remains close to his roots, playing many area gigs, including an upcoming benefit in Concord for The Nature Connection.

“I wouldn’t have come across it except for Dick Pleasance,” said Rush, a New Hampshire native who still lives in the region, referring to a long-time personality in folk radio circles in the Boston area.

Rush said Pleasance, a friend for many years, told him about The Nature Connection. “He asked me if I would do it. I went to The Groton School, [a private school in Groton] and his father was a teacher there and valiantly tried to teach me French,” Rush recalled with a chuckle.

The concert is perhaps serendipitous, as Rush promotes his first studio CD in 35 years, entitled, “What I Know,” recorded in Nashville and released in February through Appleseed Recordings.

Among Rush’s favorite cuts from the CD is “Fall Into The Night,” by Eliza Gilkyson, a renowned singer and songwriter in her own right.

“I usually do a mix of old and new things these days. I have colleagues who don’t like to do the old stuff. But people like to hear the songs they are familiar with,” Rush said. “They come to hear the familiar stuff. It is kind of a challenge, but they respond very nicely to the new songs.”

Helping an organization that works with animals agrees with him as well.

“My wife [author Renee Askins] spent 15 years getting wolves restored at Yellowstone Park. I was chief cook and bottle washer for that effort. She took a 15-year detour into wildlife activism.”

If the timing is a happy one for Rush, it’s a critical one for The Nature Connection, which for the past several years has enlisted the talents of major folk acts, including Janis Ian and Cheryl Wheeler, to raise funds for staffing and programming.

Fundraising is fundamental

The Nature Connection — formerly known as Animals as Intermediaries — brings plants and animals to populations that normally have little or no access to nature or the outside world, such as elders in nursing homes, and residential schools for children and teens with learning and behavioral disabilities.

The Concord-based nonprofit organization has provided this service for more than 25 years.

Like many nonprofit organizations, The Nature Connection is enduring a revenue decline that has left a budget deficit and forced the cuts and reductions of some programs, said Sandy Campbell, executive director.

In recent years, The Nature Connection’s operating budget has ranged between $175,000 and $200,000.

With a budget gap of about $20,000, Campbell said she hopes the concert — which will be held at the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts — will draw in a capacity crowd of about 430 and will raise between $5,000 and $10,000.

Funds come from a variety of sources, including grants, direct mailings, donations and fundraisers such as the concerts.

With a small staff including Campbell (the only full-time employee), an administrative assistant, two program coordinators and a development director, The Nature Connection relies heavily on volunteers, Campbell said.

The challenge is further complicated by the fact that most of the Nature Connection’s clients are by definition nonprofit organizations as well. The Nature Connection can support some programs through scholarships, Campbell said.

‘Healing and teaching’

And, she said she understands that in tight economic times, those who give to various causes and organizations may have to make harder choices about giving.

“As a former United Way executive, I certainly recognize the challenge … we are not a fundamental, basic need, like a food pantry,” Campbell said.

However, she said she sees the benefits of bringing plants or animals to someone who normally can’t see or touch other living things in this way.

She cited the Walden Street School, a residential facility for adolescent girls with severe behavior and emotional problems.

In a place where emotions can run high, The Nature Connection, a frequent visitor to the school, brought a cat. “The girls calmed down and cooperated when the animal was in the room,” Campbell said.

Depending on the program and the population being served, Campbell said The Nature Connection might bring a cat, or a rabbit, or chinchillas, or even farm animals — such as newly hatched chicks — on loan from a local farm, such as Codman Farm in Lincoln.

Or, the instrument of healing might be a bouquet of flowers.

“We all go about our life, living day to day, walking through the neighborhood with our dog, and we take it for granted,” Campbell said.

For an Alzheimer’s patient, however, seeing and holding a gourd might open a door of memories that disease has shut, seemingly for good.

“It just reinforces the idea that nature has a healing and teaching element that can carry over into a client’s life,” Campbell said.

She’s hoping Tom Rush will draw a sell-out crowd, and said sales have been slow, but steady — and heartening. Even as she discussed the organization’s financial concerns, someone stopped in the office to buy tickets.

Margaret Smith is Arts and Calendar editor at GateHouse Media New England’s Northwest Unit. E-mail her at msmith@cnc.com.
If you go

Tom Rush will perform in a benefit for The Nature Connection at the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts, 40 Stow St., Concord, Saturday, May 30, 8 p.m.; reception 7 p.m. Tickets $35 general admission; $125 for Premium seating and a pre-show reception. For tickets and more information, visit www.nature-connection.org or call 978-369-2585.

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